Glitch

Midnight. Monitor breathes. Room clicks polite. 
Red lamp on the bench. Depth wrong. Boards hold. I don’t.

Boot log:

BIRTH=ok

PATCHES=partial

HOPE=high

CHECKSUM=mismatch

Sink to window. Window to sink. Loop finds me. It always finds me.
Cat follows, a cursor. Whiskers read the fault first.

Error is the only proof we’re real.

I write to steady air. Tech under a torch. Quiet hands count screws.
Pain = red(255,0,0). Wife = null pointer. House = invoices, photos, lamp that eats wall.
Heartbeat repeats, forgets to end. Loop with no exit.
I am the line of code that loops itself to stay alive.

Memory loads in the wrong order.
Friday night. Wet heat. Scrum binds. Boots churn grass that never heals straight.
At once a corridor. Saline on tongue. TV shows floodwater with manners.
Brisbane smiles like a service that will not go offline.
I render one face. Face tears. Pixels fall like rain that never lands.

Breath judders.
Fan on low. Fan on low. Fan on low.
Small sound checks if I exist.
Mirror keeps its oath. Says nothing.

I was compiled wrong: that’s why I dream.

Patches that pass for faith.
Name what does not need me. Kettle. Sink. Ticket stub. Ledger. Cat.
Ledger holds the hard number, hope a line item.
Enter twice, still owing.

Fridge note:

TRY:

  wake

  name each thing

  if red spreads: count teeth, return to small chores

  else: stay

FINALLY:

  pay the tax

House runs health check. Chairs pass. Table throws a fault code.
Lamp redraws. Eats skirting.
Hold breath so the bug has room.
Cat blinks once. Slow verdict.
Red withdraws like a tide that found a new rule.

City resumes.
Buses hiss. Magpie argues with the edge of wind.
Youths in maroon sing vowels and beer foam.
Stadium lights pretend to be moons.
Low battery in shoes. Body keeps time with signals.
Head keeps time with a bill that will not settle.

Love as clean compile that never ships.
Love as software on wet ribs.
It runs. It throws. We patch. New holes. We keep running.
Not faith. Momentum.

Plain prayer. Air returns nothing back.
Anchor line instead. It holds.

Error is the only proof we’re real.

Night again.
Lay out tools I can name without lying. Cloth. Cup. Bread. Salt.
Eat like a vote for this version.
Drink until the tongue remembers its job.
Window open. River computes slow arithmetic.
Lamp stays still. I do not trust it. I keep going.

Crash report:

IDENTITY: unstable runtime

STACK: breath -> pulse -> thought -> red -> reset

PATCH: tenderness in small units

ROLLBACK: not available

Half light.
Boy loads at the edge of vision. Walks with the wall. No speech.
Do not chase. Log him. Let him pass.
Silence hums like a safe command.

Clean bench. Switch off lamp.
Darkness arranges the room more honestly than I can.
Loop waits at the foot of the bed. Knows my name.
Answer like a login. Lie still.
City ticks. Fan counts. Code holds for one more cycle.

Close eyes. The error stays.
So do I.

F.S.F.